All Nippon partners with Lufthansa to develop MPL programme

December 11, 2013 3:21 pm Europe/London

Japanese airline All Nippon Airways (ANA) plans to train its next-generation pilots for the Boeing 777 within an MPL programme developed jointly with Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT). ANA aims to benefit from LFT’s worldwide experience in MPL training.

Starting in summer 2014, future 777 pilots will complete the initial phases of their training at LFT’s Pilot School in Bremen and at the Airline Training Center Arizona (ATCA), located in Phoenix, Arizona. They will complete the programme in Japan, with the theoretical exam and phases 3 and 4 (type rating). By teaming up for this program, ANA and LFT are taking the first step in a cooperative relationship.

“ANA based its decision on a comprehensive market analysis,” reports Dirk Kröger, Vice President of the Pilot Schools Division at Lufthansa Flight Training. “We are very pleased to have been able to persuade this prestigious airline to embark on a cooperative training initiative with LFT for the next generation of ANA pilots.”

ANA, a member of the Star Alliance, focused in particular on choosing a cooperation partner with great training expertise: “In LFT, we have chosen a partner that has extensive experience in MPL training while also meeting ANA’s stringent quality standards,” says Hideki Imokawa, Executive Vice President, Operation Division at ANA.

The MPL training is expected to result in a significant reduction in training time compared to previous training methods. ANA decided to introduce the training after determining it met the group’s requirements as a mean of providing effective, consistent training from basic stages to training on actual aircraft.

LFT has a proven track record, and more than 400 copilots have already completed the course. ANA’s training team and LFT have been working together for more than a year to combine their training know-how and prepare for the introduction of MPL.